The present invention is generally directed to coating processes and coating conditioning processes for improved coating layers. More specifically, the present invention relates to improved coating processes and methods for improving or altering the properties of the resulting coating layer. The present invention can be applied to, for example, liquid development processes and imaging processes thereof providing, for example, improved coating and image cake forming processes, improved imaging processes, and improved imaging apparatuses.
There are certain prior art liquid toner development processes that use a thin layer or thin coating of high concentration toner materials as its development input. A problem associated with these prior art coating systems generally, and liquid development processes using a thin liquid toner layer specifically, particularly for highly viscous coating formulations such as certain liquid developers, is the inability to reliably form thin layers from high solids content coating formulations or developers. The problem is particularly evident for developer materials which are slightly to highly non-Newtonian and or strongly shear thinning. Additionally, paste or slurry-like materials can present other complications attributable to their strong yield stress and viscoelastic properties. In contrast, forming coatings of relatively dilute solutions or slurries, for example, with solids content of from about 1 to about 10 weight percent, is rather straight forward and uncomplicated. However, these dilute developers are disadvantaged and complicated by the need to remove a large excess of carrier fluid.
These and other problems are solved in embodiments of the present invention. The present invention provides in embodiments an apparatus and processes for forming very thin coatings with highly uniform thicknesses and high solids contents from either relatively dilute or relatively concentrated coating formulations or liquid developers.